Evaluation of Physicians ’ Cognitive Styles

Background. Patient outcomes critically depend on accu-racy of physicians ’ judgment, yet little is known about individual differences in cognitive styles that underlie physicians ’ judgments. The objective of this study was to assess physicians ’ individual differences in cognitive styles relative to age, experience, and degree and type of training. Methods. Physicians at different levels of training and career completed a web-based survey of 6 scales measuring indi-vidual differences in cognitive styles (maximizing v. satisfic-ing, analytical v. intuitive reasoning, need for cognition, intolerance toward ambiguity, objectivism, and cognitive reflection). We measured psychometric properties (Cron-bach’s a) of scales; relationship of age, experience, degree, and type of training; responses to scales; and accuracy on conditional inference task. Results. The study include